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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Revelation 2:16 - 2:16
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Rev_2:16. The summons to repentance, and the threat in case this is neglected, is added to the reproof, Rev_2:14-15, as in Rev_2:5. As to the ἔρχομαί σοι , see on the former passage, and with respect to the ταχύ , cf. Rev_1:1. The church as a whole, to whose members the Nicolaitans belong, having shared in the reproof, so also share in the admonition to repentance and the threat; for the conflict of the coming Lord, which is of course immediately directed only against the Nicolaitans ( πολ . μετʼ αὐτῶν ), must cause suffering to the entire body of the church ( ἔρχ . σοι ). It will nevertheless be a judging and visible coming to the entire church, if it continue to neglect the deliverance of its still curable members, and to cut off those actually dead already. It is against the idea of the coming of the Lord in general, and against the significance of the image of the sword in the mouth of the Lord in particular,[1171] if the ΠΟΛΕΜΉΣΩ , Κ . Τ . Λ ., be explained: “I will raise up prophets in the church to do what the bishop neglects, and to courageously oppose themselves to the Nicolaitans,”[1172] or be supplemented “by another bishop;”[1173] so too Grot., Wetst., Vitr., Bengel, Herd., Stern, Rinck, Hengstenb., etc., offend against the latter idea, in maintaining a remembrance of the sword of the angel against Balaam,[1174] or the sword whereby the misled Israelites were swept away,[1175] or both.[1176] Already the statement expressly added after Rev_2:16, ῬΟΜΦ . ΤΟῦ ΣΤΌΜΑΤΌς ΜΟΥ , renders this impossible.
[1171] Cf. Rev_1:16.
[1172] Grot.
[1173] Calov.
[1174] Num_22:11.
[1175] Num_31:8.
[1176] Cf., on the other hand, Eichh., Heinr., Ewald, De Wette.